Voice messaging systems (VMS) are well known, widely used and accepted for answering telephone calls directed to a person who is unavailable, either because that person is away from their telephone or on another call. For many VMS systems, when a VMS answers a telephone call from a calling party, the calling party is presented with a variety of options including the option of leaving a voice message at the called party's voice mailbox.
Another typical use of a conventional VMS is for sending and receiving messages between users of the system. A user is a person that has subscribed to the VMS and has a voice mail box. In order to send and receive messages to other users, such a user calls into the system, logs into his own mailbox and is then able to create and send messages to other mailboxes within the system. Such a VMS also allows users to send the same message to multiple mailboxes within the VMS, to reply to received messages, and to forward messages with comments to other mailboxes within the system.
FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a conventional VMS. As shown, a VMS 102 is coupled to a central office switch (CO) 106 by a number of telephone lines 104. A subscribing user telephone 120 is registered within a user directory 125 of the VMS 102, and is assigned a voice mailbox 124. The CO 106 is configured to automatically forward calls to the VMS 102 in the event that the user telephone 120 is unanswered. The non-user telephone 170 is unknown to the VMS 106, and, accordingly, unanswered calls directed to it are not forwarded to the VMS 106. A non-user is a person that has not obtained a voice mail box in the VMS 106.
FIG. 2 illustrates a flow chart for one prior art mode of operation for using the VMS 106 of FIG. 1 to record and send a message. First, a user telephone calls the VMS (box 202), logs into his voice mailbox (box 204), records a voice message (box 206), and enters a telephone number of an intended recipient (box 208). If the intended recipient is a user, the VMS deposits the voice message in the recipient's voice mailbox (boxes 210 and 214). The VMS then notifies the recipient of the impending message (box 216). The intended recipient can thereafter call into the VMS and access the voice message (box 218). On the other hand, if the intended recipient is a non-user, the VMS will return the recorded message to the sender (box 212).
Although widely accepted for commercial use, centralized voice messaging technology has had only moderate success in the residential market. Tremendous effort has been expended by telephone companies to market voice messaging service to the general public. Numerous television and radio advertisements have been aired to teach consumers that they can use these systems to not just answer calls, but to send, receive, reply, and forward voice messages, and to broadcast a single voice message to multiple recipients. Nevertheless, such voice messaging systems are not widely used among residential customers. One reason voice messaging systems have not gained in popularity among residential customers is that many residential customers already own and are using answering machines. Another reason is that prior art voice messaging systems will only send messages from a user of the VMS to other users of the VMS who have their own established voice mailboxes. Users to the VMS are not able to send a voice message to a non-user. Thus, a user will have to keep calling to communicate with a non-user who is not home and who does not have an answering machine. This inability to direct messages to non-users of the VMS, combined with the small number of residential voice messaging system users, greatly undermines the potential utility of the VMS.
Several voice messaging systems, such as the Octel Sierra, manufactured by Octel Communications Corporation of Milpitas, Calif., are designed to solve this problem. Such systems are equipped with a feature called non-user out calling. This feature allows a user of a VMS to call once to record the message and the voice messaging system will repeatedly call the recipient until either the message is delivered or the pre-determined number of unsuccessful attempts is reached.
However, it can be appreciated that further improvements are needed in such a system. For example, a non-user recipient of such a voice message may desire to routinely receive voice messages but may be unable or unfamiliar with a procedure for acquiring such a service. What is needed is a method and an apparatus to facilitate the voice mailbox assignment process and assist interested non-users in automatically acquiring mailboxes. What is further needed is a VMS that will automatically establish forwarding links at central office switches and automatically create voice mailboxes for new users.